


the princess and the pauper - redux.

by penisparker



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:01:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penisparker/pseuds/penisparker
Summary: “What the fuck is a chemical peel? Wouldn’t that burn your face off?”“Oh, Poindexter. So smart and yet so, so stupid.” Derek rubs his thumb over a cheekbone, and Dex leans away. Probably went too far with that one, but he can’t help it sometimes. You know how he gets....Or: Nursey has lots of money and showers it on Dex as a form of courting.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 118





	the princess and the pauper - redux.

Derek is a spoiled little shit. He gets that; no really, he does. He’s got an esthetician, an eyebrow threader, a stylist and a massage therapist on standby in both coasts. He vacations in Aspen during winter break, spends his summers on a yacht in different parts of the world. 

Y’know. Shit you can only get when you’re the product of two rich mothers in finance and business. 

Sometimes he feels bad, especially on days like today when Dex is pouting at him when he enters their shared room. Technically, Derek could just buy an entire house and live there - but that’s against the rules. And he likes living with his friends, so fuck Poindexter. “Fix your face,” he says upon entering. Dex does not fix his face, but scrunches it up more. He looks like a very angry Sour Patch Kid. 

“Shut up,” Dex mutters, and apparently, Derek said that out loud. The brain to mouth connection is forever off - money can fix a lot of things, but it can’t fix that. Unfortunately. 

“You think a chemical peel would get rid of the freckles on your face?” Derek wonders aloud, violating Dex’s personal space entirely and putting his hand to Dex’s cheek. The skin is smooth, which surprises him - Derek didn’t think drugstore skincare could work that well, but the world is full of surprises. Rather than recoil, Dex leans into his touch and wrinkles his nose.

“What the fuck is a chemical peel? Wouldn’t that burn your face off?”

“Oh, Poindexter. So smart and yet so, so stupid.” Derek rubs his thumb over a cheekbone, and Dex leans away. Probably went too far with that one, but he can’t help it sometimes. You know how he gets. Dex buries his face in his laptop, probably to hide a steadily growing blush. “A chemical peel is a series of exfoliators put on your skin ...causes hella peeling but then your skin gets super soft and looks brand new. Like, baby skin.”

“Why would I want to...have baby skin?” He touches his cheek, right where Derek’s hands were moments ago. This conundrum is understandable, since his skin is pretty soft. But it could be even softer. “When are you even getting chemical peels?” Dex looks at him, eyebrows furrowing, and Derek feels the need to hide.

“Oh, you know. Back before I came to Samwell and was exposed to different kinds of lifestyles,” he lies easily, “I used to go to an esthetician every couple weeks in the city.” He still does. Takes a first class flight from Boston to New York every two weeks because he cannot tolerate blackheads in this economy. Dex nods, not questioning him further, distracted by his work. Derek picks up a book to start a reading due tomorrow, and they slip into companionable silence.

He likes doing almost everything with Dex after a tumultuous few years, but he loves the silences the most. When they’re doing their own thing, together but separate. No pressure to talk, to fill in the blanks with something that doesn’t quite fit. It’s a wholeness on it’s own, an experience he’s still getting used to after a lifetime of filling the quiet with never ending noise.

The silence keeps going until he gets a notification, a text from his mom about his Spring Break plans. He knows if he texts her his choices, he’ll be ignored, so he has to resort to calling her. Derek glances at Dex, who has his headphones in and is completely focused on coding tomorrow’s future, or whatever. Perfect time to escape to the bathroom and demand a trip to Tokyo.

“Mom. Momther. I can’t do another beach, man,” he whines in what he’s now realizing is a very echo-ey bathroom. “Can we please go to Japan? We can stop by Kyoto or something, there’s a beach there.” 

“Why stop by the beach for a day when we can be seaside all week?” His mother, Sascha, has a voice so raspy it sounds like she’s chewed rocks and spit them out. It calms him down immediately from whatever lingering nervousness that hovers around him all the time. “Plus, we’ve been to Tokyo several times. I was thinking of Bali.”

That gives him pause. There’s a lot of cool shit in Indonesia and he was definitely three and useless the last time they went, so. “Well, that changes things.” He hears his mother’s gravelly laugh, turned aluminum through the phone. “Fine, we can go to Bali. Also, I have a question.”

“You’re about to make an exorbitant purchase, aren’t you?” His mother sounds bored, the routine tired. But he has to ask first or he’ll seem like a dick.

“It’s Armani, mom.”

“Fine. Your book advance money is mine,” she hisses like a witch, and Derek can’t help the burst of laughter that emerges.

“And my Pulitzer Prize money, I know. Seeya in a few weeks, mom.”

“Bring sunscreen this time, please! Melanin and your facialist is not an excuse!”

“Connection’s breaking up, gotta go...bye!” He hangs up and opens the door to Dex’s judgemental face. It’s a very cute face.

“Before I came to Samwell my ass,” Dex mutters, and Derek is still recovering from the shock of it all, okay? “You rich fuck.”

Derek thinks for at least a second about apologizing immediately but all he says is, “I’m the child of two women who are on Forbes and the Times 100 Most Influential People and you people want me to deny myself luxury?”

“You people? Poor people?” Dex’s eyes widen in shock. There’s a guillotine waiting for Derek downstairs, for sure.

“No? No…” Derek shakes his head vigorously. Probably looks ridiculous. “Were you like...listening to me the whole time?” Distracting Dex is an artform, one Derek would major in if he could. 

Dex rolls his eyes, already incensed. “I noticed you were gone suddenly so I looked around the haus…” his sentence tapers off, a flush high on his cheeks. Cute. “Don’t distract me! I heard some shit about Armani and a facialist.”

“We could argue for the next two weeks or you could come with me to see my facialist since you’re so fucking nosy.”

“How much is your facialist?” Dex’s curiosity gets the better of him, always. Or at least, now it does. Before it was his anger, and Derek used to have a lot of shitty practices and shitty team outings but they both know how to navigate each other, now. Dex scowls. “I can’t afford a facialist.”

“Who said you were paying? You’re broke as shit. I mean that kindly.”

“I feel like there’s no kind way to say that, but go on.”

“I’ll pay, you get a free facial and a free dinner on me.”

“Whatever I want?” Dex pauses, considering. Getting Dex to spend his money is so difficult. Everyone else will run Derek’s credit card to the ground, and he’d let them, but Dex has always been a challenge. It’s a lifetime thing, Dex told him once when they were staring at the stars on the roof. He’ll always be striving for shit his family never had. Shit Derek has in abundance, and doesn’t mind sharing. “...Italian?”

“I get to pick the restaurant.”

“If I can’t pronounce shit, we’re leavin’.” Dex’s New England-y accent pops out when Derek least expects it, causing him to blink quickly as he processes the swift change in tone. It’s like there’s Samwell Dex and Dex from Maine, and Derek gets to see both, as a treat. Like he deserves Dex’s wholeness, or something.

“I speak Italian, you’ll be fine.” Derek pats Dex on the shoulder and takes his silence for agreement. “Wanna go tomorrow? I got a hookup in Boston, she’s pretty good. Nice Italian spot there too.”

“Class, then practice, and we have no cheat days to spare. Your ability to plan astounds me.” Dex leans against the bathroom door, blocking Derek from leaving. Well. He’s obviously not getting out of here until he comes up with a date and time agreeable to Sir William. 

“Uh...next next Monday?” He thinks there isn’t anything that day. Dex rolls his eyes.

“Are you five? Sure, “next next Monday,”” he mimics, stepping away from Derek and stomping back into his workspace. 

Little did Derek know, he would create a fucking monster.

Flights to New York when they don’t have a game just to look at some expensive ass computers. All decked out, some millionaire shit even Derek had no idea about. Dex learns some Italian just so he can order the food exactly the way he likes it. He starts to hoard designer Supreme collabs in their shared closet, becoming a hidden hypebeast right before Derek’s very eyes.

Dex still gets cagey, sometimes. Mostly when Derek just buys the shit and gives it to him without telling Dex the price. They’ll argue back and forth until Derek just throws the return receipt in his face and they sit in sullen silence for a few hours until they both collectively realize how ridiculous they’re being. Derek would almost call it love if he were an idiot. 

Which he’s not. Unless it’s late at night, almost morning, when he’s staring at the ceiling and thinking, maybe.

They spend more and more time together outside of practice and games by way of Derek’s luxurious secret life, to the point where his moms start asking to only speak to Dex when he FaceTimes them. Which like, what the fuck.

“Put William on,” Sascha says immediately upon connecting.

“Yo. Where is the love?” Derek cannot believe his d-man somehow conned his way into the Nurse household. Dex perks up, hearing his name, leaning into Derek’s space to fill up the screen. His back is plastered against Derek’s chest, arms braced on either side of Derek for support.

On second thought. This was a long con and it was worth it, actually.

“Hello William!” Sascha brightens upon seeing Dex’s face, and Dex smiles wide. Derek thinks he sees a dimple, but he hopes he doesn’t, or he’d lose his mind. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

“So, for Derek’s Spring Break, we plan on going to Bali. Wanted to know if you wanted to come with, since we have plenty of room on the jet.”

Dex’s face stays open, but Derek can feel him stiffening beside him. Sascha continues, “I’m not sure if you already had plans but we would love to have you -”

“Sure, Mrs. Nurse. I’d love to.”

“Sascha,” she corrects gently. “And great! Cannot wait to meet in person! You can give the phone back to Derek, but I see him every day, so no pressure.” Derek rolls his eyes and takes the phone out of Dex’s hands.

“Mother, I just think you’re rude.”

“I think I don’t care.” Sascha is beaming at him, and Derek can’t help smiling back at her, despite her rudeness. His moms are the best. 

“See ya in a couple weeks, mom.”

“Adios!” She replies, and Derek hangs up and stares at Dex’s surprised face.

“Why do you look like that? Like, why is your face making that expression?”

Dex’s face morphs from surprise to annoyance in the span of a few seconds. “I’m just shocked your mom would invite me to go on vacation with you guys, that’s all.”

Now Derek is really confused. “Why would you be surprised? I talk about you and Chowder all the time. She’s seen you on FaceTime every time I call her.”The surprise hits him gradually, then all at once. He really, really likes Dex. Enough to let him take his phone so he can speak to his own mother one-on-one, enough to answer in kind when he asks about his mom’s favorite anything. He’s a little overwhelmed by the realization, so much so that he has to sit down on his bed and rest his legs for a second.

Dex face scrunches in confusion as he leans into Derek’s space. “Uh...are you okay? It’s not a bad surprise. It’s just a surprise. I’m coming on vacation with you, I’m not gonna cancel, okay? Just don’t be weird when I get weird about money, n’shit.”

The word “money” is what shakes Derek out of his stupor. He can ignore these pesky feelings and save them for another day. “Too late to get weird about money now, you’re about to fly private.” Derek waggles his eyebrows, and is rewarded with a forceful shove.

**Author's Note:**

> part 1 of 2....i forgot climax and denouement is a thing when you're writing something so i gotta go and do that.....
> 
> i'm rusty it's completely FINE


End file.
